Saturday, July 07, 2007

Here it is...the first completion of Top Chef. Thank you for voting this week, and remember, next Thursday is a whole other round! Start thinking about ingredients you would like me to include in the polls-just be sure I can buy it in a grocery store.

Ingredients:

Sausage: 2 sweet, 2 hot

Penne Pasta: 1/2 lb

RedPeppers: 2

Yellow Onion: 1

Garlic: 4 Cloves

Basil: 2 big bunches ~20 leaves

Olive Oil: 1/4 C.

White Wine: 1/2 C.

Goat Cheese: 4 oz

Pine Nuts: 2 T.

S&P To Taste

Method:

1 . Grill Sausage while fire roasting peppers until blackened.

2. Place blackened peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to allow them to sweat. Boil salted water for pasta. 3. Peel black skin off of peppers. Seed and stem, and place in a blender. Cook pasta and drain when done, approximately 8 minutes until al dente. 4. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until they just begin to caramelize. Pour into blender. Add basil, wine, S&P. Blend until liquefied. Slowly add enough oil to thicken. Test for seasoning and adjust as needed. (No photo because I forgot!!)

5. Cut grilled sausage on a bias. Set aside. 6. (Check pasta!) Grind or chop pignoli nuts. Roll cheese into a log shape using parchment paper and roll into nuts. Heat a non-stick saute pan with a covering of olive oil-Medium High.

8. Toss cooked pasta, sauce and sausage in the pan. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed. Place each serving in a pasta bowl and top with 3-5 medallions of cheese each. Garnish with basil and enjoy!

Verdict:

This was NOT bad at all...at first I was thinking that I would try some sort of cheese sauce. But the thought of goat cheese macaroni kind of skeeved me out-and I like goat cheese!

I then thought about the other ingredients and what I could do with them individually. Raw peppers or sauteed peppers wouldn't do-and I didn't want to have a standard "Sausage & Peppers" dish. So, I roasted the peppers and made a red pepper pesto sauce.

Good news-it's lowfat! (Until you add the sausage-but you could use turkey sausage)

Because I fire roasted the peppers, I went with grilled sausage. The whole summertime grilling theme really appealed to me, and it just seemed like the right thing to do. But now...the goat cheese!

We once made a salad in class with these medallions, only the crust was made of walnuts. Well, I don't much like walnuts, and thought of other nuts I could use. To me, the natural choice was Pine Nuts. Why? Because they are an ingredient in pesto! So, I tied the nuts into the sauce (which did NOT have pine nuts in it) and fried the cheese to make it soft and melty.

The flavor combinations here are bold. Fresh roasted peppers are strong as it is, but mellowing them out with the freshness of the basil really seemed to help. And the little bit of wine I added rounded the flavor, I think. *Note, if you don't want to add wine, use chicken stock instead!

Overall, I think this dish is a winner. I would make it for company and am looking forward to my leftovers! If you make this, be sure to take a bite of pasta, sausage and cheese all at once-it's yummy!

*Also, I'd love to hear about it if you make this dish...email me and I'll post your experience in a separate post.

okay, that looks even BETTER than the sausage and goat cheese pizza I was rooting for!That is totally a dish I would LOVE.And the cheesy medallions = pure genius! What an unexpected and totally delicious touch!You SO need your own restaurant!♥

one time your goung to think of an amazing creative VEGITARIAN meal that is delious (u think i would like a lot) so 1) i will have somethin new to eat 2) i can practice my wifey cookin skills LOL 3) it will make me happy. k? thanks.